Tassel-holding display device



April 16, 1968 E. E. we: 3,378,136

TASSEL-HOLDING DISPLAY DEVICE Filed May 4, 1966 wvmroe. 5 Euu/cz E. Lela/w United States Patent 0 3,378,136 TASSEL-HGLDING DISPLAY DEVICE Eunice E. Lubin, 1065 Redondo Blvd, Los Angeles, Calif. 90019 Filed May 4, 1966, Ser. No. 547,582 2 Ciaims. (Cl. 205-4514) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The specification discloses a trophy-, tassel-, ribbon-, or medal-holding display device which includes a base member adapted to rest upon an auxiliary horizontal supporting surface and provided with an upwardly directed standard member extending upwardly therefrom to a predetermined height and there being provided with a trophycarrying support means adapted to support and carry a depending trophy, tassel, ribbon, metal, or the like, extending downwardly therefrom toward the underlying base member. The specification discloses one exemplary preferred form of the upwardly directed standard member as comprising a hollow, at least partially transparent container member defining a vertically longitudinal interior chamber adapted to enclose a depending trophy therein in an exteriorly visibly observable manner. In a preferred form, the base member and a bottom of the upwardly extending container member are disclosed as being provided with controllably separable lower engagement means for positively and firmly supporting the container member in an upright position extending upwardly from the base member but allowing ready disengagement thereof when desired. The lower engagement means, in a preferred form, is disclosed as comprising an upwardly directed and upwardly open, annular recess for-med in the base member and a correspondingly shaped, sized, and positioned, downwardly directed annular edge portion of the upwardly extending container member at the bottom end thereof which is vertically slidably engageable and disengageable with respect to the annular recess in the base member. The trophy-carrying support means is disclosed in a preferred form as comprising a cover member removably carried by a top end of the upwardly extending container member and provided with a downwardly directed, effective supporting hook means adapted to be positioned within the interior chamber defined within the container member when the cover member is carried across the top thereof, the cover member and the top end of the container member being provided with controllably separable upper engagement means for positively and firmly supporting the cover member across the otherwise open top of the upwardly extending container member. In a preferred form, the upper engagement means is disclosed as comprising a downwardly directed, outwardly and downwardly open outer recess terminating in an upper, transverse, downwardly facing abutment shoulder formed in the bottom surface of the cover member and a correspondingly shaped, sized, and positioned outer annular, upwardly directed upper edge portion of the container member vertically slidably engageable and disengageable relative to each other. Also, in a preferred form, the cover member is provided with an upstanding decorative finial member comprising a handle means for engaging and disengaging the cover member relative to the top end of the container member. The specification also discloses an alternate, functionally substantially equivalent, but structurally modified, form of the device.

Generally speaking, the present invention relates to a device adapted to hold and display an object, such as a trophy, an award, a ribbon, a tassel of the type associated with graduation from various different types of schools, or the like, although the device is not limited to holding and displaying any particular type of trophy object, but is intended to be broadly construed as being capable of holding any displayable object.

In one exemplary form of the trophy-holding display device it may comprise a base member adapted to rest upon an auxiliary horizontal supporting surface and provided with an upwardly directed standard member extending upwardly therefrom to a predetermined height and there being effectively provided with trophy-carrying support means adapted to removably support and carry a trophy or other displayable object (usually in depending relationship) above the underlying base member.

The upwardly extending standard member may, in one exemplary form of the invention, take the form of a hollow member which is at least partially transparent (usually of substantially tubular configuration and substantially completely transparent, although not specifically so limited in all forms of the invention) defining a container having an interior chamber adapted to enclose a trophy depending from the previously-mentioned trophycarrying support means positioned at the top of said standard member. In other words, in this exemplary form of the invention, the trophy is enclosed within the interior chamber of the hollow container member in an exteriorly visible observable manner so that the trophy can be readily viewed and can be said to be on display. This exemplary form of the invention protects the trophy and keeps it in immaculate condition at all times, since the trophy is enclosed within the container member.

In one form of the above-mentioned version of the invention, the trophy-carrying support means positioned at the top of the standard member comprising the container member may take the form of a cover member adapted to be removably carried across the otherwise open top end of the container member, and since the bottom of the container member is effectively engaged and closed upon the underlying base member, this causes the interior chamber within the container member to completely enclose a trophy on display therein. In fact, the complete enclosure of the trophy may even be of an effectively sealed nature in certain forms of this version of the invention.

Also, it should be noted that the exemplary version of the invention referred to above may have the cover member provided with an upstanding decorative finial member effectively comprising a handle means for engaging and disengaging the cover member relative to the top end of the upstanding hollow container member, and the means by which the trophy-carrying support means comprising said cover member actually carries and supports a depending trophy, may take the form of a depending effective supporting hook means positioned underneath said cover member and in a convenient position for the reception of a portion of a trophy so that the remainder thereof may hang down from the hook means in depending relationship.

In another exemplary form of the invention, the previousiy-generally-mentioned, upwardly directed standard member may not comprise a hollow container member as referred to above, but may merely comprise an upstanding column member (actually one column member or a plurality of column members) having bottom ends rigidly engaged or engageable with respect to said base member and having top ends rigidly engaged or engageahle with respect to the previously-generally-mentioned upper trophy-carrying support means so that a trophy may be carried thereby and will not be enclosed within a container (either a partially transparent container or a fully transparent container) in the manner referred to hereinbefore in connection with the other exemplary form of the invention generally described above. in this latter form of the invention, the upstanding column member (or plurality of column members) may be laterally offset from the center of the base member and the upwardly spaced trophy-carrying support means (in particular, the center thereof) may similarly be oppositely laterally offset relative to the upstanding column member or column members so that a trophy supported thereby may hang or be positioned substantially on a vertical centrally positioned axis of symmetry of the base member.

Also, it should be noted that the trophy-carrying support means may comprise a decorative member simulating in appearance a desired esthctically attractive object and may be functionally provided, substantially at the center thereof, with an effective depending hook means for engaging and carrying a depending trophy or other object which is to be displayed thereby.

With the above points in mind, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel trophy-holding display device of the type defining a container which will carry and protect the trophy and yet display same in an exteriorly visible manner, in one form of the invention, and which, in another form of the invention, will mount and display a trophy, or the like, directly and not through transparent wall portions of a container or enclosure of the type referred to above.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a trophy-holding display device of the character referred to herein generically and/or specifically and which may include any or all of the features referred to herein, either individually or in combination, and which is of extremely simple, inexpensive construction adapted for ready mass manufacture at an extremely low cost per unit whereby to be conducive to widespread production, distribution, and use of the invention for the purposes outlined herein.

Further objects are implicit in the detailed description which follows hereinafter (which is to be considered as exemplary of, but not specifically limiting, the present invention), and said objects will be apparent to persons skilled in the art after a careful study of the detailed description which follows.

For the purpose of clarifying the nature of the present invention, several embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the hereinbelow-described figures of the accompanying single drawing sheet and are described in detail hereinafter.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating one exemplary embodiment of the invention in fully-assembly relationship and also showing it in actual use, interiorly supporting in an exteriorly visible manner a trophy which is shown in one exemplary form thereof wherein it comprises a tassel such as is associated with graduation from various types of schools and which can be viewed from an exterior position through the transparent side wall of the tubular container or enclosure. The trophy is shown in phantom.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary view, partly in elevation and partly in section, taken substantially on a vertical central plane bisecting the assembled device of FIG. 1 from top to bottom and with central portions of the transparent tubular member comprising the container being broken away for drawing space-saving reasons.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary view, partly in elevation and partly in section, of just a portion of the side wall and base of a slight modification of the invention having a slightly modified transparent tubular container wherein the material thereof is modified from glass to transparent plastic.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating a modified form of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view taken substantially along the plane indicated by the arrows 5-5 of FIG. 4 and illustrates one exemplary type of rigid attachment of the top and bottom ends of the pair of vertical column members, comprising the upright standard means of this form of the invention, at the tops thereof to the trophy-carrying support member and at the bottoms thereof to the base member.

Generally speaking, the trophy-holding display device of the present invention comprises a base member, one exemplary form of which is generally designated by the reference numeral 20 in the first form of the invention illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, which is adapted to rest upon an auxiliary horizontal supporting surface, such as that shown fragmentarily at 22 in FIGS. 1 and 2, with said base member 20 being adapted to be provided with an upwardly directed standard member, one exemplary form of which is generally designated by the reference numeral 24 in FIGS. 1 and 2 and takes the form of a hollow tubular container member made of transparent glass tubing, comprising a cylindrical side wall, specifically designated by the reference numeral 26. Said hollow glass tubular member 26 has an open bottom end 28 and an open top end 30, each of which is adapted to be effectively closed by the corresponding lower base member 26 and upper cover member 32, respectively, so as to effectively define a complete container means, generally designated by the reference numeral 34 as best shown in FIG. 1, adapted to protectively enclose a trophy, such as is shown in phantom at 36, within the hollow interior chamber 38 defined within said complete container means 34 in a manner such that the trophy means 36 can be seen through the transparent glass side wall 26 of the container 34, as is clearly shown in FIG. 1.

In the exemplary first form of the invention, the base member 20 has a radially enlarged bottom portion 40 having a fiat bottom surface 42 adapted to rest upon the auxiliary horizontal supporting surface 22, and said bottom portion 40 is provided with an upwardly directed, centrally positioned, cylindrical body portion 44- of reduced diameter compared to the lower portion 40 and is further provided with an upwardly directed and upwardly open annular recess 46 adapted to receive a correspondingly shaped and sized downwardly directed annular engagement edge portion 48 of the transparent side wall 26 of the upstanding tubular container member 24 in a vertically slidably engageable and disengageable manner relative to each other. The fully-engaged relationship of said two elements 46 and 48, which together effectively comprise lower engagement means generally designated by the reference numeral 50, is clearly shown in FIG. 2.

The cap member 32, in the exemplary first form of the invention illustrated, may be said to effectively comprise one exemplary form of trophy-carrying support means and, in said exemplary form, said cover member 32 is provided with a downwardly directed supporting hook means 52 which has its threaded shank 54 engaged within a centrally positioned downwardly directed cylindrical body portion 56 of said cover member 32 substantially on a central vertical axis of symmetry (shown in phantom at 57 in FIG. 1) of the cover member 32, the transparent tubular container member 24 and the base member 20 so that the trophy means 36 will hang substantially on said central axis of symmetry within the transparent side wall 26 of the complete container means 34, as is clearly shown in FIG. 1.

The cover means 32 and the open upper end 30 of the tubular container member 24- are provided with controllably separable upper engagement means, such as is generally designated by the reference numeral 58, which, in said exemplary first form of the invention, comprises the outer annular recess 60 lying immediately radially outwardly of the downwardly projecting central body portion 56 and terminating in an upper abutment shoulder 62, and a corresponding annular upper edge portion 64 of the transparent tubular container member 24 adapted to be vertically slidably engageable and disengageable relative to each other so that the cover means 32 may be fully engaged across the open top 30 of the tubular container member 24, as is most clearly shown in FIG. 2,

or can be disengaged and removed therefrom when desired.

In the exemplary first form of the invention illustrated, the cover member 32 is provided with an upstanding decorative finial member 66 which effectively comprises a handle means for engaging and disengaging the cover member 32 relative to the otherwise open top 30 of the transparent hollow tubular container member 24. The finial 66 may have a threaded base portion 68 engaged within the upper part of the cover member 32 or may be otherwise suitably mounted with respect thereto or may even be integral with the cover means 32 in certain forms thereof.

The cylindrical upstanding portion 44 of the base member 20 may, if desired, be provided with a suitable plaque 70, which may be made of metal, plastic, or the like, and is normally adapted to be provided with engraving, or otherwise with suitable lettering, marking, insignia, or the like, commemorating the occasion associated with the awarding of the trophy 36.

Incidentally, it should be noted that the entire device, or any portions thereof (exclusive of the tubular container member 24) of the first form of the invention shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, may be made of metal, plastic, and/or wood, or various combinations thereof and also it should be noted that the tubular container member 24 may be made of glass, transparent plastic, or combinations of various opaque materials and having at least partial portions thereof which are transparent so that the trophy 36 can be exteriorly seen. Also, the configuration or shape of the tubular container member 24 may be modified within the scope of the present invention. For example, a fragmentary showing of a modified tubular container member, designated by the reference numeral 24a, is illustrated in FIG. 3 and shows it as comprising a plastic material rather than glass. Such a plastic material may comprise an acrylic resin such as methyl methacrylate, a transparent plastic of the type frequently known in the art as Plexiglass or Lucite, or any other functional equivalent. Parts of this modification of the invention corresponding to those of the first form of the invention illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 are designated by similar reference numerals, followed by the letter a, however.

It should be noted that the plaque 70, the base 29, the cover member 32, and/or the finial 66 may, in those forms thereof wherein said parts are made of a plastic material, be vacuum-metallized or otherwise electroplated with an extremely thin coating of metal of extremely high gloss whereby to produce a highly decorative and estheticaily attractive appearance, if desired.

Also, in the exemplary first form of the invention illustrated, the overall height of the tubular glass container member 24 may the approximately inches to 15 /2 inches, the outside diameter thereof may be approximately 2 inches, and the inside diameter thereof may be approximately 1% inches or slightly greater by approximately & of an inch or so. The overall height of the base mem- 'ber may be approximately 1 inches high with the upper cylindrical portion 44 thereof being approximately one inch high and with the lower enlarged portion being approximately W of an inch high. The diameter of the central upwardly projecting portion 44 of the base member 20 may be approximately 2 /2 inches and the diameter of the enlarged lower portion 40 of the base member 20 may be approximately 4 inches. The annular recess 46 may have an outer diameter of approximately 2 inches and an the inner edge of said shoulder 62 of approximately 1% inches.

The above-mentioned dimensions are exemplary only of one specific embodiment of the first form of the invention which has been physically reduced to practice and which has been found particularly advantageous and are not to be construed as specifically limiting the invention.

FIGS, 4 and 5 illustrate a slight modification of the invention, and parts thereof which are structurally and/ or functionally similar to those of the first form of the invention illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 and described in detail hereinbefore are designated by similar reference numerals, followed by the letter b, however. It will be noted that there are two parts of this modification of the invention which differ to a greater extent than other parts from the corresponding parts of the first form of the invention. The two most radically differing parts of this modification are the upwardly directed standard member or means, generally designated at 24b in the FIGS. 4 and 5 modification of the invention, and the upper trophy-carrying support means, generally designated by the reference numeral 32b in the FIGS. 4 and 5 modification of the invention. It will be noted that said upwardly directed standard member or means 2411 actually comprises a pair of upstanding column members 71 having threaded bottom ends 72 rigidly threadedly removably engaged with respect to the upstanding base member 20b and having oppositely threaded top ends 74 threadedly removably rigidly engaged with respect to the upper trophy-carrying support member 3212, both at laterally offset locations relative to the vertical centrally positioned axis of symmetry of said base member 2911, as indicated in broken lines at 5712 in FIG. 4-.

In the example illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5, the trophycarrying support means 32b comprises a decorative member simulating an Aladdins Lamp, although it might simulate any other desired esthetically attractive object or might merely comprise a lateral extension :mem'ber provided with the hook means 52b substantially on the vertical central axis of symmetry 57b so that a trophy (not shown) mounted on the hook 52b will hang substantially over the center of the base member 201).

In the FIGS. 4 and 5 modification of the invention, the entire device is shown as being made of metal and the upstanding column members 71 comprise a pair thereof. However, it should be clearly understood that the modified form of the invention may be made of any of the materials referred to hereinbefore in connection with the first form of the invention and, additionally, it should the noted that a single column member 71 (instead of the two illustrated), or any desired number of such column members, may the employed and the positioning thereof may be modified substantially Within the broad scope of the present invention. This is also true with respect to the trophy-carrying support means 3211, which may be modified substantially within the broad scope of the present invention. Also, attachment means other than the threaded ends 72 and 74 may be employed and, in certain forms of the invention, may be of an integral nature.

It should be understood that the figures and the specific description thereof set forth in this application are for the purpose of illustrating the present invention and are not to be construed as limiting the present invention to the precise and detailed specific structure shown in the figures and specifically described hereinbefore. Rather, the real invention is intended to include substantially equivalent constructions embodying the basic teachings and inventive concept of the present invention.

I claim:

1. A trophy-holdig display device, comprising: a base member adapted to rest upon an auxiliary horizontal supporting surface and provided with an upwardly directed standard member extending upwardly therefrom to a predetermined height; and a trophy-carrying support means supportedly cooperable with respect to said upwardly extending standard member and adapted to support and carry a depending trophy extending downwardly therefrom toward said underlying base member; said upwardly extending standard member comprising a hollow, at least partially transparent, container member defining a vertically longitudinal interior chamber adapted to enclose a depending trophy therein in an exteriorly visibly observable manner; said base member and a bottom of said upwardly extending container member being provided with controllably separable lower engagement means for positively and firmly supporting said container member in said position extending upwardly from said base member when engaged, but allowing the ready disengagement thereof when desired, said lower engagement means comprising an upwardly directed and upwardly open annular recess formed in said base member and a correspondingly shaped, sized, and positioned, downwardly directed annular edge portion of said upwardly extending container member at the bottom thereof which are vertically slidably engageable and disengageable relative to each other; said trophy-car rying support means comprising a cover member removably carried by a top end of said upwardly extending container member and provided with a downwardly directed effective supporting hook means adapted to be positioned within the interior chamber defined within said container member when said cover member is carried across the top end thereof, said cover member and the top end of said container member being provided with controllably separable upper engagement means for positively and firmly supporting said cover member across the otherwise open top of said upwardly extending container mermber, said upper engagement means comprising a downwardly directed, outwardly and downwardly open outer recess terminating in an upper transverse downwardly facing abutment shoulder formed in the bottom surface of said cover member and a correspondingly shaped, sized, and positioned outer annular upwardly directed upper edge portion of said container member vertically slidably engageable and disengagea'ble relative to each other.

2. A device as defined in claim 1, wherein said cover member is provided with an upstanding decorative finial member effectively comprising a handle means for engaging and disengaging said cover member relative to the top end of said container member.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,071,132 2/1937 Loucks 248l58 2,274,196 2/1942 Gilbert 20645.19 2,534,290 12/1950 Moskowitz.

WILLIAM T. DIXSON, JR., Primary Examiner. 

